Have just bought a HP Pavilion ZT3000 with Xp home installed.
I want to connect it to my home pc xp pro machine. so I can access the net via this machine.

I have a crossover cable, but cannot get them talking.

this is new to me so take it easy ie A,B,Cs

As both your machines are Xp, it makes it relatively easy

I would suggest that you follow this tutorial which shows you how to do the configuration and tells you why you are doing what you are doing

Note: for installation of NetBEUI

%System%root\System 32 = usually C:\Windows